Nigeria's main unions warn of pay strike

Nigeria's main labour unions Thursday gave the government a two-week ultimatum to pay workers a minimum wage agreed to a year ago, or face a nationwide strike, including in the key oil sector.

"Organised labour under the auspices of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) hereby issued a two-week ultimatum for full implementation of the minimum wage across the country," NLC leader Abdulwahed Omar told reporters.

Omar told unions in both public and private sectors to start "mobilisation of Nigerians for a nationwide strike action at the expiration of this ultimatum."

In July last year, after months of negotiations, unions settled for a 240 percent pay hike to 18,000 naira ($118) from 7,500 ($49) per month that had been paid for over a decade. They had initially demanded an almost 700 percent rise.

Just before the April general election, President Goodluck Jonathan in March signed into law, a bill for the application of the new national minimum wage.

But now some of the country's 36 state governments are saying they are unable to pay the new wage because their revenue cannot support it.

In Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and leading oil exporter, some of the continent's richest people live in luxury on a scale unimaginable to the impoverished masses.

The powerful blue-collar oil workers National Union of Petroleum and Gas Union (NUPENG), an affiliate of the NLC, said it will also down tools.

"NUPENG workers have agreed to join in the strike," its general secretary, Owei Lakemfa, told AFP.

The NLC claims to have 42 affiliate unions and a membership of around five million workers

Obiang tells world not to intervene in Africa

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) — Foreign military intervention has caused massive suffering in Africa, the African Union's current chairman said Thursday in a message that is being seen as a jab at the NATO airstrikes in Libya.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the president of Equatorial Guinea, also blamed outside "agents" for sparking pro-democracy demonstrations in countries across Africa including his own.

"The intervention for human rights are nowadays causing a massive scourge," he said at the opening of the AU's biannual summit being held in this capital, located on an island off the western coast of Africa. "The uncounted number of victims, among them women and children, displaced people and the destruction of economic infrastructure does not justify such interventions. Instead of providing solutions to problems we are complicating and worsening world conflicts."

Obiang did not specifically mention Libya, but the AU has come out forcefully against the bombardment that is threatening to topple Moammar Gadhafi, whose grip on power was thought to be absolute.

His fall would be discomforting for the other entrenched rulers in Africa, including Obiang, who has maintained total control of state institutions in Equatorial Guinea since his uncle was overthrown and killed in a coup 32 years ago.

Obiang's country is considered among the most undemocratic in the world, one that has never had elections deemed free and fair, and where opponents to the regime are systematically tortured, according to Human Rights Watch and the report of the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Speaking about the popular uprisings in North Africa, Obiang said the youth are right to protest when their cause is "just and necessary," but added that outside "agents" are in some cases attempting to manipulate public sentiment in order to cause unrest.

"I draw attention here to those agents accustomed to manipulating the innocence and the good faith of our youth and inexperienced population to unnecessarily cause sterile revolutions," he said in Spanish, the national language of Equatorial Guinea. "This is the case of my country, Equatorial Guinea, which is victimized by a systematic campaign of misinformation by these agents."

The wave of popular protest that has swept across the northern part of the continent has so far not spread dramatically south, largely because leaders like Obiang have clamped down at the slightest sign of dissent.

In Malabo, reporters were told by the minister of information that state TV would not be discussing the events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya because they do not have correspondents in those countries who can ascertain if the information being reported by the international media is correct.

In Zimbabwe where summit attendee Robert Mugabe has been in power for 31 years, even watching video footage of those uprisings can lead to treason charges punishable by death.

And in Cameroon, where 77-year-old President Paul Biya has ruled since 1982, the government ordered cell phone companies to suspend mobile services for Twitter after citizens used the site to organize a "Drive Out Biya" march.

Traditionally the AU has chosen to support its leaders at the expense of the people they govern, but the recent conflict in Ivory Coast may have marked a turning point.

An African Union panel charged with finding a solution to the conflict initially backed Laurent Gbagbo, the country's outgoing president who lost last year's presidential election and took his country to the brink of civil war in an effort to stay in office.

Under immense international pressure, however, the panel that included Obiang eventually called for Gbagbo to step down.

The same evolution may be in the works on Libya. The ad hoc committee charged with dealing with the crisis has issued numerous statements supporting Gadhafi and advocating for talks between the Libyan leader and the rebels attempting to overthrow him.

The proposal was rejected outright by the rebels and the international community, which views Gadhafi as the problem and not a part of the solution.

On Sunday, the committee reversed course, however, saying they welcomed Gadhafi's decision to not be part of the negotiation process.

In a statement issued Thursday, the committee said it had met in Malabo and agreed on a set of proposals to help Libya emerge from the crisis. It said the proposals would be submitted to the AU assembly for their support.

"I believe there is certainly a change in the whole perception of Gadhafi. We are in a very different position to the one we were in just five, six weeks ago," said Britain's Minister for Africa Henry Bellingham who attended the first part of the conference.

He said he had met with many of the foreign ministers of the 53 member nations attending the conference, and found that even those that were previously reluctant to call for Gadhafi's ouster are now privately agreeing that he should go.

UK teachers, civil servants strike over pensions

LONDON (Reuters) - Teachers and civil servants marched through the streets and picketed government buildings across Britain on Thursday in protest at planned pension reforms, launching what could be a long period of labor unrest over austerity measures.

Echoing protests across Europe against spending cuts imposed to reduce debt, the strikes closed many schools, as well as courts and other institutions, but the impact otherwise seemed limited and rallies were largely peaceful and modest in size.

The year-old, center-right government said the majority of civil servants had not gone on strike. But labor leaders warned of further waves of action by Britain's 6 million public sector workers against moves to cut pensions for state employees.

"This country is being led by people who are privileged, people who earn too much money... The gap between rich and poor is getting bigger. We don't think it should be us who are made to suffer for it," said Martin Pitcher, 35, a primary school teacher taking part in the biggest march in central London.

Police said the march, which stopped traffic on some of the capital's main thoroughfares and around parliament, involved up to 15,000 people carrying banners and blowing whistles.

There was no sign of the violence seen in recent days in Greece over its austerity plans, or at previous mass protests in London in December and March against government spending cuts, although there were small scuffles with police and 18 arrests for minor offences.

"We are here to protect our own pensions. We are also fighting for pensions and against overall government cuts generally. I'm worried about my own retirement because when I add up what I'm going to get, it's just not liveable," said Simon Korner, a 54-year-old lecturer.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union called the walkout the "biggest coordinated public sector strike for a generation" and said 84 percent of its 285,000 members had gone out on strike.

However, ministers said that of some half a million people working directly for government ministries, only about 100,000 had not turned up for work. Contingency measures meant essential public services were still running.

Exact numbers of strikers were not expected until later in the day. Unions which had declared the strike represent some 750,000 people.

"What today has shown is that the vast majority of hard working public sector employees do not support today's premature strike and have come in to work today," said Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, a member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party.

SCHOOLS CLOSE

Around half of schools in England and Wales were closed or disrupted by the stoppage, the government said. Air travelers faced some delays as immigration officials joined the walkout. Courts and government buildings were also affected.

London's Metropolitan Police said 95 percent of staff dealing with calls from the public did not turn up for work, meaning it was taking slightly longer to answer emergency calls.

Dozens of marches and rallies were arranged across the country, and were generally peaceful.

"It's about standing up to the bully," said sports teacher Martin Patching at a rally in Welwyn Garden City, north of London. "I hate striking but it gets to the point where you've got to stand up with your colleagues and say enough's enough."

Cameron has condemned the strikes as irresponsible, saying that talks between unions and ministers have not concluded.

However, other unions are gearing up for mass stoppages later this year if talks break down.

One teaching union, the ATL had never held a strike before in its 127-year history but joined on Thursday:

"It's not something we do lightly," a spokeswoman said.

"But the bottom line is we're worried about what the government is going to do to the long term future of teaching."

CHANGE NEEDED

Cameron argues that longer life expectancy means public sector pensions must change, as many in the private sector have done, to ensure that they are affordable. The changes are part of government plans by 2015 to virtually wipe out a budget deficit that peaked at more than 10 percent of national income.

Consequently, workers face higher contributions to their pensions and retiring later in life. The proposals have hit a raw nerve at a time of wage freezes and job insecurity.

Union leaders assert that their members are bearing the brunt of a financial crisis caused by rich bankers.

Analysts said the protests would challenge the government anew after it retreated on plans to restructure state-funded health care following lobbying from the medical profession.

Markets, which have reacted positively to government deficit-cutting plans, could take fright at any sign of a government climb-down over an issue like pensions.

Some Britons sympathize with the strikers but others say they are being unrealistic at a time when households have suffered their biggest fall in disposable income for more than 30 years.

"They're not paying for my pension. I work for myself -- I have to provide my own pension," said Martyn Hall, a 50-year-old IT consultant from London.

"I think they should realize a lot of people have become unemployed and had their wages cut. I think it's a case of get real, this is the way it is."

Lightning strikes kill 15 in northeast Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities say 15 people in northeastern Nigeria have died from lightning strikes after strong thunderstorms swept through the region's rural pasturelands.

A spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency

Wis. Supreme Court argument leads to investigation

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A fight between Wisconsin's divided Supreme Court justices led Monday to a criminal investigation and calls from the governor and others to resolve long-standing differences and restore public confidence in the institution.

Liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has accused conservative Justice David Prosser of trying to choke her during an argument in her state Capitol office on June 13, the day before the court handed down a decision upholding a new law that eliminates most public employees' collective bargaining rights. Prosser has denied the allegations.

Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney said his office opened an investigation into the incident at the request of the Capitol Police, which have jurisdiction in the building where the argument took place.

The state judicial commission, which oversees judicial conduct, also announced it had opened an investigation. The commission could ultimately make a discipline recommendation to the state Supreme Court, potentially putting some justices in a position to rule on their colleagues' fate.

Bradley declined an interview request through a court spokesman. Prosser's spokesman, Brian Nemoir, said the justice would cooperate with investigators.

"It's the best way for the facts involving this incident to be made public and an appropriate resolution to be determined," Nemoir said.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker and others expressed concern that infighting had hurt the court's reputation. Walker told Milwaukee radio station WTMJ that the justices must come to grips with their differences.

"Whether you're Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative, there's got to be confidence that the people on the court can rationally discuss and debate," the governor said. "This is very serious, and it's got to be resolved."

Wisconsin justices are officially nonpartisan, but Bradley is generally seen as a member of the court's three-justice liberal faction. Prosser, a former Republican legislator, is considered part of the four-justice conservative majority.

Former Justice Jon Wilcox said tensions have always run high on the court, where members spend long hours hashing out polarizing legal issues. But Bradley's claim that she was choked underscores how personal the conflict has become.

Strife between the court's liberal and conservative factions has been intensifying since 2007, when special interest groups started pouring millions into judicial elections in hopes of influencing the court's ideology.

The court's liberal members are still stinging from conservative Justice Michael Gableman's 2008 defeat of liberal former Justice Louis Butler. Gableman took a bare-knuckle approach in his campaign to oust Butler, the court's first black justice.

Recently, the justices have barely been civil to each other. The court's public administrative sessions, for example, have become days-long arguments in which the justices disparage each other's management and communication styles.

Questions about Prosser's temper date back to his days as a Republican legislator. But emails surfaced in March that showed he used profanity and threatened to "destroy" Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, one of Bradley's closest friends on the court.

"In a very short period of time, we have gone from having a Supreme Court that was a national model to a Supreme Court that is really fodder for late-night comics," Howard Schweber, a political science and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said. "We no longer view the court as being somehow above or outside the day-to-day politics. It's become just another partisan office."

Walker's collective bargaining law apparently led to the latest fight.

The measure requires most public employees to contribute more to their health care and pensions and eliminates almost all their union rights. It turned Wisconsin into the focal point of a national debate over union rights as thousands of demonstrators descended on Madison to protest the measure and deepened the divide between liberals and conservatives statewide.

The law also nearly cost Prosser his re-election after opponents threw their support behind a little-known challenger in the hope that electing a liberal justice would move the court to the left and result in the measure being overturned. Once expected to walk away with the election, Prosser was declared the winner only by about 7,000 votes after a nearly month-long recount.

Republicans pushed the court to make a decision on the law's legality by June 14, saying the savings involved was needed to address the state's budget problems. The justices were reportedly discussing the decision when the argument between Prosser and Bradley erupted.

"Regardless of who was at fault in this particular incident, the court as an institution is becoming something of a laughingstock," Schweber said. "The public confidence has been shaken, not only by this incident but by a long line of incidents."